'Topiary' suspect named and charged

Emma Woollacott, 1st August 2011

The British hacking suspect arrested last week has been named as 18-year-old Jake Davis, from the remote Shetland island of Yell.

Davis, who will appear in London's City of Westminster Magistrates' Court today, is believed to be Topiary, a spokesman for both LulzSec and Anonymous. Police are also believed to have arrested Davis's 17-year-old brother Josh and to have interviewed another 17-year-old in Lincolnshire.

He'll be charged with five offenses relating to the recent DDoS attack on the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) - which investigates, amongst other things, serious cybercrimes.

These are unauthorised access to a computer ystem, encouraging or assisting offences and three charges of conspiracy.

"Although there have been plenty of internet rumours speculating that the police might have been tricked by the hackers into arresting the wrong person, the authorities have been confident since Davis's arrest that he was the one they believed to be 'Topiary'," says Graham Cluley of security form Sophos.

"A few days before Davis's arrest, Topiary's Twitter account was strangely wiped and replaced with a single message: 'You cannot arrest an idea'. Both Topiary and LulzSec's Twitter accounts have remained silent since Davis's arrest."

Over the weekend, Anonymous hacked into the network of Mantech, a US government defence contractor, and posted details of correspondence between the company and NATO online.